OK, let’s take a break from hair loss for a second and look at a different issue: beards. It turns out men aren’t just concerned with the follicles on the top of their heads – many also want more hair on their face. And while there are plenty of treatments that reverse hair loss, there’s just one that can grow hair on your face: minoxidil.

Hair loss, beard growth, and body hair

You wouldn’t expect it, but hair loss and beard growth are closely linked.

Come to mention it, so is body hair.

What they all have in common is a hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT).

DHT is formed when testosterone – the male hormone – interacts with 5 alpha-reductase. And according to science, DHT is 2.5x to 10x more potent than ordinary testosterone.

The effects of DHT are most noticeable during embryonic development and puberty. It’s what makes your body hairy, your beard grow, and the hair on your head fall out.

And just to further complicate things, there’s something else to throw into the mix: receptors.

Hormones such as DHT are only able to cause changes in the body when they bind to hormone receptors. And different people can have completely different distributions of hormone receptors.

This basically means that having high levels of DHT is no guarantee of baldness… or beardedness.

Some men can have low levels of DHT but still grow a thick, bushy beard if they have an abundance of DHT receptors in their beard area.

Similarly, some men are able to hold onto their Norwood 1 hair lines despite having high levels of DHT or taking anabolic steroids – this is because they’re lucky to have hair follicles that aren’t sensitive to the effects of DHT.

Why minoxidil is different

It has nothing to do with DHT though – minoxidil has a completely different mechanism of action.

We do know that minoxidil is a vasodilator. In other words, it widens the blood vessels.

But hair loss appears to have nothing to do with blood flow. Not only that, there are plenty of other vasodilators out there that don’t have any effect on hair loss! So how does minoxidil increase hair growth?

One proposed suggestion is that minoxidil has something to do with prostaglandins.

And this study suggests that the prostaglandin angle may explain why minoxidil is effective:

“We thus speculated that activation of PGHS-1 might be a mechanism by which minoxidil (2,4-diamino-6-piperidinopyrimidine-3-oxyde) stimulates hair growth in vivo. We demonstrate here that minoxidil is a potent activator of purified PGHS-1 […] Our findings suggest that minoxidil and its derivatives may have a cytoprotective activity in vivo and that more potent second-generation hair growth-promoting drugs might be designed, based on this mechanism.”

But however minoxidil works, it’s got nothing to do with DHT. So you can use it on your face without worrying about going bald.

Minoxidil for beard

This brings us to the $64,000 question: can you use minoxidil to grow a beard?

Unfortunately, there have been no clinical trials that have tested this. There are, however, plenty of willing guinea pigs online who have tested minoxidil on their own faces.

But the most dramatic transformation has got to be this guy, a poster on Jeff’s Beard Board:

Based on these photos, it does indeed look like minoxidil is effective for beard growth.

Of course, it’s only anecdotal evidence, but a quick Google search throws up so many success stories it’s difficult to doubt the effectiveness of minoxidil.

What’s more, one of the listed side effects of minoxidil is unwanted hair growth. There are, for example, reports of people growing random hairs on their forehead where minoxidil has dripped down from their scalp. This all points toward it being effective for growing facial hair.

That said, it does appear to take a fair amount of time to grow a full-on beard.

The best results usually come from users who’ve applied minoxidil for at least 1 year. So, it takes dedication, but minoxidil does appear to work for beard growth.

Research the hair loss industry chooses to ignore

Despite what pharmaceutical companies may say, there is more to hair loss than hormones. But since they can't make money from the truth, there's no point advertising it! Find out the complete picture and start recovering your hair today.

You’re right, minoxidil is not FDA approved specifically for beard growth – but that just means it hasn’t been tested, not that it doesn’t work. Given how expensive FDA trials are, it seems unlikely it will ever be put through trials for beard growth – especially now the patent for minoxidil has expired.

Without FDA trials, we must look to other evidence: anecdotal reports, small scale trials, etc.

Let’s say im an asian men, chinese to be specific, i have no genetics for beard, and also not in my bloodline whatsoever, and I’m desperate to grow a beard, given the situation i dont even have a mustache.. will minoxidil help me to stimulate the hair growth on my face and be able to grow a beard ? Or its just never gonna happen for men like me.

Is it possible to use minoxidil on your scalp for hair loss and at the same time use it on your beard for potential hairgrowth. As DHT is needed for beard growth and high DHT in the scalp causes hair loses, as these are the opposite will using minoxidil on scalp and beard work or cause issues?